Title: Dollar Up, Euro Slides as Concerns of Inflationary Shocks Increase

Mar 06, 2022 11:11PM ET

By: AnalysisWatch

The dollar gained in Asia on Monday morning, while the euro fell to a fresh 22-month low against the greenback and hit multi-year lows against the yen, Swiss franc, and pound sterling. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine pushed commodity prices higher and stoked fears of a stagflation shock that would hit Europe hardest.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies, was up 0.27% at 98.933 by 11:04 PM ET, near its 22-month high of 98.925 hit on Friday.

The USD/JPY pair rose 0.10% to 114.90.

The AUD/USD pair gained 0.62% to 0.7416, and the NZD/USD pair rose 0.48% to 0.6893.

The USD/CNY pair rose 0.07% to 6.3224. The trade data released earlier in the day showed that exports rose 16.3% y-o-y in February 2022, while imports rose 15.5% y-o-y, and the trade balance stood at $115.95 billion.

The GBP/USD currency pair fell 0.12% to 1.3209.

The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0864 at the start of the session, its lowest level since May 2020, and was on track for its 2020 low of around $1.0636. It also fell below the Swiss franc, hitting 0.9982 for the first time since the franc was unpegged from the euro in 2015.

The conflict in Ukraine intensified further over the weekend. Attempts at a ceasefire to allow the evacuation of civilians from the city of Mariupol have apparently failed so far.

The euro fell to a 15-month low of 124.78 yen and hit 82.23 pence against the pound, its lowest level since mid-2016.

The greenback also rose against the yen and the Swiss franc and was recently about 0.4% higher against the franc and about 0.3% higher against the yen.